(UE4) How can i set the position of bones using c++ only

Question

i just want to know if there is a way to set bones of a skeletal mesh to a specific position in c++. I do not want to use blueprints and i did not find a good way of doing it.

Answer 1

Look up the UPoseableMeshComponent. It allows you to set the transform for each of a skeleton's bones.

edit:

Here's an example of how I use a PoseableMeshComponent in a project. In my case I'm replicating a skeleton that's being driven by mocap data. The mocap data is received from a networking socket and stored into a struct that looks like this:

USTRUCT()
struct FSkeletonData
{
GENERATED_USTRUCT_BODY()

FSkeletonData()
    : Scale(1.0f)
{}
/**
 * The bones' location
 */
UPROPERTY(VisibleAnywhere)
TArray<FVector> Locations;
/**
 *  The bones' rotation
 */
UPROPERTY(VisibleAnywhere)
TArray<FQuat> Rotations;
/**
 *  Scale of the skeletal mesh
 */
UPROPERTY(VisibleAnywhere)
float Scale;
}

The class that's receiving this data has a PoseableMeshComponent and updates it based on this struct like this:

int32 NumBones = PoseableMeshComponent->GetNumBones();

for (int32 i = 0; i < NumBones; ++i)
    {
        FName const BoneName = PoseableMeshComponent->GetBoneName(i);

        FTransform Transform(SkeletonDataActual.Rotations[i], SkeletonDataActual.Locations[i], FVector(SkeletonDataActual.Scale));

        PoseableMeshComponent->SetBoneTransformByName(BoneName, Transform, EBoneSpaces::WorldSpace);
    }
    PoseableMeshComponent->SetWorldScale3D(FVector(SkeletonDataActual.Scale));

Note that SkeletonDataActual is of the FSkeletonData type, and these positions are in World Space. You might need to add your actor's location and/or rotation if you want it to work in local space.

Hope that helps you, good luck!